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Blue Coat to Acquire Crossbeam Systems

SUNNYVALE, CA, Dec 17, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) --
Blue Coat Systems, Inc., a market leader in Web security and
optimization, today announced that it has entered into an agreement
to acquire Crossbeam Systems, Inc., a proven leader in delivering
scalable network security. The acquisition brings together two market
leaders that deliver complementary technologies to scale and secure
the world's largest and most complex networks. By acquiring
Crossbeam, Blue Coat is laying the foundation for a broader strategy
to transform the way businesses secure and optimize their networks.

"Our service provider and enterprise customers are excited we are
bringing together two complementary technologies," said Greg Clark,
chief executive officer at Blue Coat Systems. "With Crossbeam, Blue
Coat gains a best-in-class support infrastructure and a high
performing platform that scales to meet the needs of even the most
complex enterprise IT environments."
New customer initiatives and an increasing number of devices
accessing rich media content are driving the need for more capacity
and performance in the network. Enabling these initiatives, however,
often requires investments in additional networking and security
solutions. For enterprises, being able to deploy these new solutions
into their existing security environment is crucial.

"As enterprises seek to improve corporate agility with mobile and
cloud-based solutions, the dual demands for greater capacity and
improved threat response force enterprises into a cycle of constantly
expanding networking and security infrastructures," said Christian
Christiansen, IDC's program vice president of security products &
services. "Blue Coat and Crossbeam have a history of embracing
emerging security ecosystems, and this acquisition potentially
enables customers to further tap into even more synergistic security
and networking solutions."
The Crossbeam X-Series portfolio provides the industry's only highly
scalable platform that allows businesses to consolidate their
security and networking infrastructures. Combined with Blue Coat's
leading Unified Security solution, the X-Series is an ideal control
point in the network for managing applications that secure both
inbound and outbound traffic from all users in any location.

"Blue Coat and Crossbeam are natural partners. The combination of
Blue Coat's web security solutions and Crossbeam's scalable X-Series
platform is an exciting proposition for us," said Matthew Gyde,
global general manager of security at Dimension Data. "We're
confident that this union will appeal to our clients that are looking
to innovate securely and cost effectively."
Together, Blue Coat and Crossbeam will continue to embrace an open
ecosystem and support best-of-breed ISV applications that allow
customers to cost effectively deploy the security solutions that best
fit their needs.

"Crossbeam has been a great partner for us, and we are committed to
continuing and strengthening that relationship with Blue Coat going
forward," said Amnon Bar-Lev, president at Checkpoint.

The acquisition is expected to close on December 31, 2012.

Blue Coat and Crossbeam are portfolio companies of Thoma Bravo, LLC,
a leading private equity firm with more than 30 years of providing
equity and strategic support to experienced management teams and
growing companies.

About Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat Systems provides Web security and
WAN optimization solutions to 86 percent of FORTUNE Global 500
companies. As the market share leader in the secure web gateway
market, Blue Coat sets the standard for enterprise security. Its
solutions provide the visibility, protection and control required to
optimize and secure the flow of information to any user, on any
network, anywhere. For additional information, please visit
www.bluecoat.com.

Blue Coat and the Blue Coat logo are registered trademarks or
trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the
United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks
mentioned in this document are the property of their respective
owners.